[MUD-Dev] ghost mode

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: Amanda Walker [mailto:amanda at alfar.com]

>> Would you feel the same though if leveling wasn't a boring slog
>> of mouse clicking in a semi-comatose state?

> I don't know--no game I've tried has provided this yet--hence my
> conclusion that leveling is the problem.  I'm certainly open to
> being convinced otherwise if a counterexample presents itself.

Well its not an MMO, but I've been playing 'Knights of the old
republic' (xbox only atm, and very delayed Euro release) recently,
and as I play it I keep asking myself why can't MMOs be more like
this. The entertainment provided by the quests completely humbles
any MMO attempt I've ever seen.  Some of them are simple fed-ex, but
you don't even notice because they are so well crafted, and looking
at them in isolation, I can't see why similar quality quests
couldn't be put into an MMO. I'm wondering if its just down to the
quality of content creation staff, and perhaps the desire on MMOs to
try and make generic quest systems rather than splendid quests
themselves?

In a few recent MMOs (starting with AO), I've seen what appears to
be a lot of work put into auto generated quest systems that in the
end give two quests. 'Go and blow this up' or 'Drop this off with
Bubba'. All that work, and all that's been created are two quests,
and a large set of dialog strings to 'fool' the player into thinking
it's a different quest (ahem).

A few other things struck me about KOTOR. The first, was the high
entertainment density. You are never bored, and always have
something to do.  I realise that with a single player game that's
easier, but an MMO could definitely try harder on that front. I
played EQ for 2.5 years and in that time did about 10 quests. I did
more than that in the first couple of hours of KOTOR, and they were
all interesting multi part quests.

I'm really beginning to wonder if MMO designers get so wrapped up in
trying to get as many elegant systems in as they can, that they
totally forget to put any flesh on their creations. Why shouldn't an
MMO launch with >100 quests for each player to perform? They can be
the same for each player and often require co-operation. I wouldn't
care if I had to do the same interesting quest a few times to help
friends through etc. Furthermore they need to be signposted, as in
the typical MMO there is so little guidance you don't even know
where to find the entertainment.

The other thing that grabbed me about KOTOR, was the fantastic
quality of world design. Everything was perfectly sized so that the
world felt big, but not pointlessly so. If I see another pointlessly
sprawling & empty heightmap in an MMO I will despair. Furthermore
the gfx were absolutely stunning, but in a non-flashy unassuming
way.

Perhaps current games are far too focused on technology at the
expense of gameplay?

Dan

P.s. I'd love to see Bioware put the same design approach into an
MMO. It would really be something.
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